


Welcoming in the New Year’s

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [44]
Category: Markiplier fandom - Fandom
Genre: Adopted Children, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Feel-good, Flashback, Fluff, M/M, Secret Children, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:13:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22058338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: Dark and Wilford have made terrifying names for themselves in the city. People fear their names and part crowds. However, in private, things are different.
Relationships: darkstache
Series: Masks and Maladies [44]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 2
Kudos: 64





	Welcoming in the New Year’s

**Author's Note:**

> Personal headcanon: Celine and Damien’s family name is Doom. Which is why Dark has a watch with that name.

-::- FOURTEEN YEARS EARLIER -::-

He wasn’t sure if it was the cold or how quiet the room was, but Yancy woke up. He was in the living room of the Manor, the T.V showing the news spending the rest of the hour on random topics until the final countdown. But the only people still in the room were Yan and Kay, who were sleeping side-by-side in the massive cushion island that Wil had helped them make.

Yancy groaned as he got up from the mess of cushions on the floor. His eyes blurry from how tired he still was, and the Manor tended to get cold and hollow when you were by yourself.

“Dark,” Yancy called out, looking around to see him with Bim and Illinois looking out the window. Bim looked like he was about to fall asleep at a moment’s notice.

Dark turned to look at him when he called out his name and the entity slowly motioned for him to come over.

“Is it New Years yet?” Yancy rubbed at his eyes with his arm.

“Soon,” Dark promised. “You can go back to sleep, there’s always next year.”

“Don’t wanna,” Yancy whined, and then yelped and shrunk back when he saw something fly at him for a split second.

The hit never came, and when Yancy felt brave enough to crack an eye open he saw that Dark had a baseball trapped tight in his aura, barely an inch from Yancy’s face. Illinois was in a similar state to him because he was close enough. Bim, however was half-asleep on the windowsill.

“Wil,” Dark snarled and softball tossed the baseball back to the madman. The reporter and Arthur were playing baseball on the front lawn.

“It was an accident,” Wil defended heatedly. “As if I’m trying to hit one of the kids.”

“Arthur, control your swings,” Dark warned. “Or you won’t have the bat anymore.”

“Fine,” Artie rolled his eyes, wiping half-frozen mud from his bat onto his black shirt. Dark glared at the mess now on Arthur’s shirt.

Wil tossed the baseball up in the air, “Darkling, what time is it.”

Dark let out a long sigh, closing his eyes for a couple seconds, “Wil.”

“Yes?” Wilford smiled. “My sweet?”

Dark pinched the bridge of his nose. “Wilford J. Warfstache, please tell me you’re just being lazy and don’t want to check your own watch.”

The reporter tossed the baseball up in the air a bit, looking more than a bit sheepish. “Yes?”

“Wil,” Dark glared at him, “where’d you leave it?”

There was silence, Illinois and Arthur started giggling. The reporter looked away, clearing his throat.

“Wil,” Dark’s hands scratched on the windowsill. “That is your third watch in two months. It has the Barnum name on it, where is it?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Wilford crossed his arms. “Besides, they’re a stuffy family of even stuffier shirts.”

“You are one of only two remaining members of that family. Both of which live in this house!” Dark shouted at him. Waking up both Yan and Kay in the process.

“Meh,” Wilford shrugged. “We could make it zero and do Bim and the others a favor.”

“Find me that watch, Wilford,” Dark ordered. “If you don’t want it, fine, just tell me that so I don’t get you another one.”

“No, I don’t want another blasted watch,” Wilford argued, tossing the baseball at Artie who knocked it into the rest of the Void. A huge smile on the boy’s face.

“Good, get me the old one,” Dark huffed, then pulled out his own pocket watch, a stag with a star on its chest on the front of it with the name _DOOM_ on it. “It’s fourteen to midnight.”

“Oh,” Wilford summoned the baseball back into his hand. “Seems like we have a hot minute then. Let’s go inside.”

Arthur frowned, but followed.

Wilford, instead of using the stairs and going through the door like a sensible person, climbed in through the window. Dark gave him a dirty look as Wilford dragged Arthur through.

“Wil,” Dark warned.

In response the mad reporter just kissed him. “Live a little Darky, it’s a new year, we’ve a bigger family now.”

“Clean yourselves up,” Dark answered. “You’ve still got time. Oh, and Arthur?”

“Yeah, what?” Arthur asked, sounding more than a little defense.

“Your strength and aim is improving,” Dark complimented. “You should be proud of yourself. Just don’t hit my windows.”

The small boy looked surprised, and touched by it. “Thanks.”

“Talent should be praised,” Dark reminded. “Now, go clean up.”

Arthur quickly ran out of the room to his bedroom. Wilford snapping his fingers to clean up the mess left by their entrance back into the living room.

“Hello Princess,” Wil walked over to where Yan was glaring at him, Kay was already walking towards Dark. “Tired?”

Dark noticed that both Yancy and Kay had grabbed onto him, as if using the Entity as support to stay upright. He didn’t brush them off, only leading them back to the couch he’d been sitting on earlier. Illinois joined them on the couch as Bim jumped into Wil’s lap.

“Just a little bit longer,” Wil told them, welcoming Arthur as he ran back in and tackled him. The boy had one of his journals in hand, curling up next to Bim as they used Wilford like a pillow.

Dark and Wil counted down the clock, Yancy moving over to Wilford to get a look at what Arthur was writing. They asked the kids if they had any plans for the new year. Some did, others like Bim and Yan didn’t. Arthur and Bim started making a story, and Yancy wanted to join in. Yan and Kay fell asleep five minutes before midnight.

Within the next half-hour all the kids had fallen asleep, even Arthur who had his notebook propped open in his lap.

The entity had a wine glass in his hand, trying to be careful not to disturb the two children using him as a pillow. Wil was gently carding his hands through Bim’s hair.

“We’ve done quite well for ourselves, Darkling,” Wil smiled, looking down at Bim. “They’re all so lovely. We should take them out to celebrate.”

Dark made an unflattering snorting noise, tipping back his wine. “With all the heroes running around town, I think not.”

“We’re strong enough to protect them,” Wil promised. “You and I rule this town.”

“They are children, Wil,” Dark reminded pointedly. “Developing aura or not.”

Wilford just looked at the kids around them. “They’re _ours_. How could anyone have given them up?”

“Because they were idiots, clearly” Dark used his aura to grab a bottle of Korean wine from the coffee table. When Dark shifted it didn’t escape his notice that Illinois grabbed him tighter in his sleep. “Mores the better.”

Dark gently smoothed out Illinois’s hair and the boy seemed to cling onto him a little less tightly, as if soothed in his sleep. The action gripped something in Dark’s chimeric soul, that he could be a soothing presence to anything.

“Shame we couldn’t get seven,” Wil suggested. “It’s a lucky number.”

“If anything _you’re_ the seventh child around here,” Dark retorted. “You definitely act like it.”

“I resent that,” Wilford scoffed good-naturedly. “So, do _you_ have any plans this year?”

“Try and find a tutor for the Lost Ones,” Dark answered, able to compartmentalize the children if he referred to them as anything but _“my kids”_. There was less of a desperate possessiveness about it. “My Latin’s rusty, and Kay needs to learn it correctly”

“Google,” Wilford reminded. “He works in your network.”

Dark made a noise of distaste, “Trusting him is a recipe for disaster. Especially since even Bim is human.”

Wilford shrugged, “They can’t just stay in the Manor all their lives, they’ll get bored.” At that last part Wilford sounded like that was a fate worse than death.

“What about you?” Dark evaded. “Any new plans, or more of the same chaos you reek.”

“Bah,” Wilford scoffed. “Same chaos, wouldn’t be chaos if it was the same. I’m going to work on the kids’ marksmanship.”

Dark just stared at Wil, and then took another long swallow of his wine, imagining Arthur and Yan holding Wil’s revolver in their too small hands. “I don’t think so.”

“Come on,” Wil whined.

Ignoring Wil’s protests, Dark used his aura to pick Kay and Illinois up, while keeping them fast asleep. Carefully manifesting his aura to slowly pick up the others. Bim was the only one who even got restless in his sleep at the change. “No, Wil. You will wait until they are a little bit older for that.”

Wil waited until Dark had put the kids down for bed before they went back into Dark’s office and had a long, heated discussion about the merits of teaching their six kids how to properly operate and fire a gun.

In the end, Wil won out, on the condition that Dark was there to supervise, and Wilford was not carrying around a gun while he did so. So Wilford walked away from the argument happy, and Dark had a little bit of peace of mind.


End file.
